I have a classroom full of students with no motivation of their own.  They seem impassive and uncaring.  How do I motivate them?

From Susan in Chicago

All humans are motivated by their unmet needs or unfulfilled wants.  To be successful, a teacher needs to be aware of each student’s motivations and speak to them directly to make learning relevant. A successful teacher doesn’t motivate students in the sense of giving them something they need or want, but instead taps into the motivations already present in the student.  In other words, someone else cannot physically give you motivation.  Pretend you’ve just eaten and are satisfied; you’ve pushed away from the table and announced, “I am stuffed.”  At that moment I offer you a juicy steak, perfectly cooked!  Would you be interested or motivated in eating the steak?  No, it would be a waste of time to convince you to eat the steak because your food needs have already been completely satisfied. To motivate someone you have to figure what wants or needs have not been fulfilled.

“The secret to all human motivation” can be summarized in the following formula:

value (reason to act) = Benefits ÷ Costs

F.Siccone

Whether consciously or unconsciously, we all go through a cost-benefit analysis when we are asked to do a task. We determine if the potential payoff is worth more than the investment.  If so, we are motivated to act.  If the costs are too great, we are less likely to act.

Put yourself in the place of your students. What are the benefits of them of doing well in your class?  Would they feel praise or less hassle from their parents?  Would they have a sense of accomplishment?

What would they view as costs? A loss of status with peers, less time with friends or fear of discovering they’re not smart enough?

Perhaps we can take some ideas from advertising agencies that spend millions of dollars every year on motivating consumers to buy products they really don’t need. You may laugh at applying mass-marketing techniques to the profession of educating students, but keep an open mind and see if any of the following ideas would work for you in your classroom:

1. Know your audience
The better you know your students, understand their interests and assess their skill level, the more effective you can be in reaching and teaching them.

2. Get their attention

• Start with the provocative question.
• Ask an engaging rhetorical question.
• Use a prop.
• Do the unexpected.
• Tell a joke, use a cartoon or YouTube clip to make a point.
• Tell a story or an anecdote.
• Create a mystery or a puzzle to be solved.

3. Communicate benefits in relevant terms
Create a link between what you are teaching and how it is relevant for your students.

4. Be passionate
I believe as teachers we are salesmen. We are selling our curriculum. If you are not passionate of the content in your presentation, why should your students be interested?

5. Make it memorable

• Speak or write catchy jingles to remember facts.
• Use repetition with movement.
• Add humor and surprise.
• Create fun learning games.

Motivation is not something you do to people; it’s something you do with people.  You can make a difference with many, if not all, of the students in your class.  There will be some whom you cannot reach, at least not today.

The paradox is to teach with the clear intention of
inspiring each and every student to
discover his or her love of learning
and then to accept that
some were moved
and others were not.